This has brought Jony Ive, master designer of Apple Macs and iPhones, and OpenAI headspace guru Sam Altman together to take a crack at making a consumer device that can change how humans interact with AI. This is not the first attempt, although the $6.5 bn acquisition of Ive’s 1-year-old startup io by OpenAI – announced earlier this week, but a collaboration that began two years ago – makes it the buzziest bid. It’s also expensive, at almost twice the amount of OpenAI’s expected sales this year. io, despite its vaunted pedigree, is yet to turn in a profit. OpenAI’s investors, who have raised its valuation to eye-watering levels, would want to see returns soon. Remember, Chinese AI startup DeepSeek released an open-source AI bot at a fraction of the cost of – and considerably quicker than – those being developed by the likes of OpenAI, which has since shocked and awed the (US-focused) world.
Apple, the maker of the most successful consumer electronics device in history, will be looking at the AI hardware issue more intensely. It has been making gradual improvements to its original designs, culminating in the introduction of AI in its latest product portfolio. Hardware for ambient computing is an idea up for grabs.